Page 80 of Alien Prince’s Fake Bride (The Tentacle Throne #1)

My fiance quickly gets to his feet. “That will have to do for now, my friends. We will stay in touch until the wedding. General Grast, you and your shock troopers are in command of the Palace until Nerox can find suitable new members of the Calanian Guard in our other forces. We can’t trust the former ones that had their minds twisted by the Phrexz.

Relief forces are on the way for a victory parade and a show of strength tomorrow.

Our people must know that Khav is again ruled by Khavgrens.

Until then, the palace is under a curfew.

I think most people will enjoy a day off. ”

He takes my hand and we leave the building, closely followed by Caret’ax. Outside, the shadows are growing longer as the sun sets.

“What do we do until the wedding?” I ask, not sure which way to go. “Should we stay in the palace or go somewhere safe?”

“I recommend the Gladiux , sir,” Caret’ax growls, scanning our surroundings. “We don’t know if all the Phrexz’s allies were taken care of yet.”

Mareliux pulls me closer. “I don’t think there’s a safer place on Khav than this palace.

The Phrexz is dead, and our shock troopers are in control.

Everything works like before, by the way.

The Phrexz only concentrated on the Calanians and the Throne.

Other parts of the palace should be fine. And I know just where to go.”

He leads me along narrow alleys and through underground tunnels. Caret’ax follows, keeping his hand on the hilt of his sword.

We walk for probably twenty minutes, passing over short footbridges and across wide streets that are almost deserted. We do the usual maze-like run through all kinds of buildings until we’re inside an elevator that shoots up so fast I have to grab onto Mareliux to stay upright.

“What is this place?”

“You’ll see.”

The elevator continues up for a surprisingly long time before the doors slide open and we step out. We’re in a perfectly circular room. The walls are windows that go from the stone floor to the mirror-like ceiling, giving a wonderful view of the city and the palace below.

Far below, I realize as I walk over to the wall and look down. Despite having been in space for months, I feel vertigo tugging at me from the sheer height. “What kind of tower is this?”

“This is Aderianux’s Folly,” Mareliux says as he embraces me from behind with both his arms and several of his tentacles.

“Two centuries ago, he was emperor. Only briefly, but he had this built. It is a tower where he felt that he could watch everyone in the city from above. He would come here and walk restlessly in a circle along the glass wall until the sun set, watching. He felt that it was the only way to stay in control. And that this was the only place he wouldn’t get stabbed in the back. ”

Indeed the stone floor is worn in a shallow hollow along the whole circle.

“What did his doctors say to that?” I ask carefully while Caret’ax prowls around the bare room, kicking suspiciously at the floor as he looks for dangers to our safety.

Mareliux laughs. “He probably wasn’t quite well. In the head, I mean. I don’t blame him. He had lived at the Imperial Court his whole life and all the murders, and the court politics must have been too much for him. I don’t think he enjoyed his reign.”

I lean back on his massive chest. “Was he a bad emperor?”

“He didn’t do much to damage the Empire.

Most of his other decisions were solid. Especially one of them, and it concerns us.

” He turns his head. “Caret’ax, I don’t think we will need you more tonight.

This tower is hardened against every type of explosive or weapon.

Aderianux made sure it was safe for him to be here. ”

“Very well, sir,” Caret’ax growls. “Will you need some furniture sent up?”

“No, thank you, Caret’ax. We’ll be fine here.”

The caveman looks around the completely bare room. “If you say so, sir. Good night.”

He gets into the elevator.

“Get some sleep,” Mareliux calls to him. “We’ll need you in the days ahead.”

The doors close.

“Oh,” I suddenly realize. “This is the tower you showed me from that first place, before the fireworks and the missile.”

“It is,” Mareliux says and squeezes me harder. “The tallest building on Khav.”

“We should be pretty safe here, then.”

He sniffs my hair. “My love. You speak Khavgrese very well now. I’m astonished at how fluent you are.”

“Vera helped me,” I tell him. “She’s seen me learn many things before, so she knows exactly how to teach me in the fastest way. She knows me better than anyone, except you.”

“Perhaps,” my prince says. “But I know you through the Syntrix. No AI can compete with that. Not even Bellatriz. Now come along. I want to show you something.”

I look out at the palace, where the lights have come on, an ocean of light that stretches to the horizon on many directions. “Where can we go from here?”

He takes off his sword belt and places it on the floor. “You may take some time off, Bellatriz.”

“ Oh, thank you,” the sword AI says with clear sarcasm. “ How did you know that staring at a stone floor from up close is my dream vacation?”

Mareliux obviously wants some real privacy, so I take off Vera and put her a safe distance away from Bellatriz, right next to the window so she can see out. I don’t want her bullied by that sword AI.

We go back into the elevator. “Now, they say that Aderianux was crazy,” Mareliux says as he touches the wall panel. “But he had something that many emperors never had. Perhaps you will be able to guess what that was.”

I don’t really notice the elevator moving, but I think it drops a small distance, like one floor.

The doors open into a dark space. We step out, and a warm light comes on.

It’s a living space, made to be as comfortable as possible for one person.

There’s a big armchair of an alien design, but it looks comfortable and inviting.

There are tables and a big bed, as well as simple decoration.

The floor is covered by soft carpets, and the walls are full of artworks of many different types.

Four of them in particular catch my eye.

They’re hanging side by side, and they shimmer with movement despite clearly being completely still.

They’re not photographs and not videos, but they shimmer with woven light.

Each picture is a portrait of a person, the same quickly shifting through different ages.

They start with round babyfaces and then flick smoothly through the same Khavgren’s face as it grows and matures.

I’ve seen similar things online, but those are nowhere near as smooth and as fine as these.

They’re not screens, but seem to be made from thousands of hyper fine fibers that move and only become visible where they intersect each other.

There are three faces, two girls and one boy.

The fourth picture is of a couple of adults, and it’s not moving like the three others.

The couple are dressed in Imperial robes, and the man is smiling as he holds the woman to him with one arm around her waist and two tentacles around her shoulders.

One of them is naughtily curled around her breast outside the clothing, and the woman is turning her face up and smiling.

“Aderianux?” I ask and point to it.

“And Empress Bavinet,” Mareliux confirms. “That’s not an official portrait, as I’m sure you realize.”

“It’s just a picture that they liked,” I agree. “It looks like they were posing for an official one, and by the end they loosened up and looked like that. It’s cute. They look like they had fun together.”

Mareliux lifts his eyebrows. “Not bad, Umbra. That’s how it was made, by all accounts.

I’ve never seen a portrait of any other Imperator look like that.

They’re always serious and stately. But I found this place when I was exploring the palace as a child.

I doubt anyone else knows about it. The elevator has no button for this floor.

Only a curious child will play with the control panel and then stumble upon a combination that takes him to a secret place. ”

I look around the room. It’s big and comfortable and nice, but there are no windows. “So is this where he would relax when he wasn’t looking down on his palace from the tower?”

“I doubt Aderianux himself was here much. But he decided to have this place made, of course. Because, as I said, he had something of great value that most other emperors would kill for.”

I look up at the double portrait. “A wife who loved him.”

Mareliux turns his head, raising his eyebrows in surprise. “Is this female intuition, or am I giving you the answers to my riddles through the Syntrix without knowing it?”

“Just a guess,” I admit. “But that picture is very telling.”

“Intuition, then. Yes, the empress loved her emperor, despite his eccentricity. So whenever he went up the tower to keep lookout, she came up in this tower with him. She stayed up there until she got tired of the view, and then she went down here. To still be close to him, you understand. She was the only person in the galaxy that Aderianux would trust. And his trust was well placed. She never plotted against him. Instead she played the Court politics that he disliked and kept him safe that way.” He gives me a sideways glance.

“I always thought the stories of their love were exaggerated and silly. Now I know they may well have been perfectly true. It is my guess that they were likely Soulbound without telling anyone about it.”

I get up on tiptoes to get closer to the picture. “They are wearing Syntrix rings. And it looks like they have a glow to them.”

“We will never know for sure. Anyway, whenever the Empress felt that it was time for the Emperor to leave his tower, she went up there and talked him down, so to speak. Only Bavinet could deal with him. It’s likely that many of his decrees and rulings and decisions were really hers. Or her suggestions, anyway.”

“And these are their children.” I point to the three other portraits.

Mareliux strokes one finger along the frame of one of the pictures.

“One of them must be Emperor Hasrinax. He ruled for forty years and put the Empire on an upward path that lasted until… well, until Craxallo married the Phrexz that was posing as Juriniel. Anyway, I just wanted to show them to you. Many marriages at the Imperial Court are cold and deadly. But not all.”

“Thank you,” I say. “It’s good to see. I like that family.”

“Hopefully Craxallo will last for years. But sooner or later, we must take over. And with Soulbound like us, it won’t be just me who will rule. You will, too. We will be able to rule the Empire together. As one. You will be a true Empress, like Bavinet was. It will be glorious.”

I shrug. “All right. I never wanted to rule anyone, but I will do my best.”

“ We will both do our best.” He sits down in the armchair, making it creak. “And I won’t be walking around in this tower all the time. But I think we can come here sometimes. It depends on what happens now.”

I look around. “What will happen?”

He leans forwards, and his arms and tentacles grab me and pull me over to sit on his lap. “You tell me. I’m sure Bavinet would appreciate it if we used her room for something fun.”

I can feel his bulge twitching right under my butt, so I wiggle my hips. “Maybe that’s what they did here, all the time. Aderianux walking in circles up there was their cover story. They just wanted to have some privacy in this tower.”

His deep chuckle vibrates through me and sends a shiver up my spine as his tentacles tighten their grip on me.

“Privacy, you say? Then let’s make this tower our own, just for tonight.

” His hands, slide up my sides His fingers brush the edge of my shirt, while one tentacle traces a slow, deliberate path along my thigh, igniting sparks with every inch.

I tilt my head back. “You think you can handle me up here, all alone?” My hips roll again, teasing that growing hardness beneath me.

The air thickens with anticipation as he leans in, lips grazing my neck. His breath is hot against my skin. The world narrows to the creak of the armchair, the rustle of fabric, and the pounding of my heart as we lose ourselves in the heat of the moment.